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Nintendo DS Cartridge

Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butōden (ドラゴンボール改 アルティメット武闘伝, Doragon Bōru Kai Arutimetto Butōden; lit. "Dragon Ball Revision: Ultimate Fighting Legend") is a fighting video game based on the anime series Dragon Ball Kai. It was released only in Japan on February 3, 2011, for the Nintendo DS. Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butōden features the return of the Butōden series since the 1997 game Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout.

Contents

Overview

Gameplay

The ki cannot be charged and fills gradually during battle. Supers or Ultimates can be done by touching the touch screen or inputting commands by the control pad. Ultimates have a mini-game which decides whether the user lose or win. There are no in-game transformations, but a wide range of characters.

Controls

Though the controls can be changed, without button configuration, they are:

Battle Stages

Development

News of the game first broke when it was announced that distributor Namco Bandai had applied for patents in Japan for two titles, Ultimate Butōden and Zenkai Battle Royale. This raised the question of whether or not another Dragon Ball was on the horizon.[1] This question was put to rest when a full announcement was featured in the following issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump. The announcement featured several screenshots showing that the game would be a fighting game that would extend to at least the Cell story arc, and featured a Japanese release date for February 3 of the following year.

Reception and Sales

Four days after the game was released in Japan, it already sold 31,108 copies, being the fourth best selling game of the week overall (being released in Thursday) and the second best selling Nintendo DS game of the week, only surpassed by Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth 2.[2]

Trivia

This is the first Dragon Ball Kai fighting game. Even though the game follows the storyline of Dragon Ball Kai, it goes past the Cell Games Saga, up until the Kid Buu Saga, which was not in Dragon Ball Kai at the time the game was released.

As an homage to the older Butōden games, this game also has the classic cheat code at the start screen, "UP, X, DOWN, B, L, Y, R, A" which unlocks Broly. Upon entering the code Broly's voice can be heard screaming, "Kakarotto!"

Another instance of homage to older Butōden games is the unlock code, "UP, X, DOWN, B, LEFT, L, RIGHT, R" which unlocks Bardock.

Ultimate Butōden is the first video game where King Kai is a playable character.

Frieza's first form is considered a costume rather than a separate character with slightly different abilities, therefore his first and final forms both have a completely identical moveset and they also share any modifications made in Customize Mode.

All characters who originally wear scouters in the manga/anime series (Bardock, Raditz, Nappa, Vegeta, Frieza, Zarbon, Dodoria, and all the Ginyu Force except Guldo) have their scouters removed in the game; though Bardock, Vegeta, Frieza, and Zarbon also appear without scouters in the manga/anime. Players can purchase scouters after unlocking them and put them back on those characters through Customize Mode.

(video game only) Krillin's hair from the Buu saga is shown to be a wig in one mission in the game, though everything in the series indicates it is Krillin's real hair.